Thursday, October 27, 2005

Ghosts in Wilderness Park? I think so...

So I got last-minute clearance to ride Wilderness tonight, and went out there all by my lonesome in the dark. After seeing Bonsall and a bunch of guys on the first bridge, I headed out to the part of the trail that I call "ass width trail." It's a section of trail in the prairie just before the 14th street parking lot -- right by the cedar tree that one side is basically gone to give clearance for the trail to pass at close range... anyway, I stopped there and took a break. Leaned my bike against the cedar tree even (see pic).

After about 10 minutes or so, I got up to get going. I plugged my light back into the battery, pulled my pack over my shoulders and spun the bike around 180 degrees to head back to civilization. So far, so good, but when I got on my bike and tried to pedal away, I just stayed put. I pushed on the pedal, but nothing happened -- it was like someone was holding onto my seat. At that point, I turned around and looked directly behind me. The HID light on my helmet illuminated the area behind me clearly, showing noone but myself, but you know that feeling you get when you know you're not alone? Well, I got that feeling (along with a super layer of goose bumps) right then.

I turned back around and took off without incident the second time, but by this point, you could easily say I was scared shitless. I flew back through the park to the tracks and went in there, relieved to be out, but still amazed, awed and curious about what I had just experienced.

Perhaps not ironically, earlier today I had actually consciously wondered if our friend Tony Naikelis' spirit was anywhere near. Maybe that thought put the call out to Tony, and he gave me that little scare to mess with me a little -- or maybe just to tell me he's here. Who knows? All I know is that it felt very real, and that being alone out there, in the dark, and having that happen... well, let's just say that true fear is an emotion that's hard to rationalize.

6 comments:

Dude if you want to try something do this. You might think you have no fears, and you might think the movie is stupid. You might think you don't believe in that shyte but try this first and see if it doesn't change your life. It did mine. Some night when you have nothing going on rent "Blair Witch Project". Sit down and watch, then go for a slow night ride by yourself. You will hear and see shyte that will make you run home and hide under the covers. I used to ride by myself all the time. Like 2 in the morning rides at L&C and Riverside north. Nope no more, can't do it, freaks me out. I know exactly that fear MG is talking about and you can't out run away from it and the more you try to think it through the worse it gets. I miss those night rides but there is stuff in them woods folks just don't talk about......

Last year, I was night riding at a park close to home here. I had bootlegged down the hiker only trail (shame that it's off limits...). A wise person told me to never break more than 1 law at a time. Night riding is already illegal and I didn't want to roll into the parking lot coming from the hiker side - sometimes the law sits in the parking lot. There's a spot on the hiker trail that comes with in 30 yards of the highway about 1/2 mile up from the parking lot, so I figured I'd bail off the trail there.

Well, it's about 30 yards of thick brush so you have to look where you're hiking. I panned the dark and saw a set of eyes a few hundred feet away. I tried to keep my light on them, but I'd have to turn to look where I was going pretty frequently so I wouldn't trip. Every time I turned my light back on the beast, it was about 1/2 again as close. Shit, I was pretty damn scared by the time I reached the highway, those eyes were only 50' away. To this day I'm not sure 100% what it was, but I pedalled like a bat out of hell once I was back on bike.

yeah, that reminds me of a time redstone and i were up riding at the top of waterton canyon (i can never remember that loop's name). anyway, davey has a flat tire, and when we stopped, we could distinctly hear footsteps slowing on the trail behind us. it wasn't a 2-legged creature either. that was clear.

oh, did i forget to mention that a hiker had been attacked by a mt. lion less than one mile away, as the crow flies, at another front-range park? well it jappened just a week before this little "incident."

anyway, redstone went on with fixing his flat while i kept my light shined down the trail towards the sound. we couldn't see anything on the trail, and i sure as hell wasn't going to walk back there to figger' out what was going on... so we decided that we'd ride for five minutes and stop quickly again to see if the sound continues to follow us...

ok, so five minutes of riding... pull brakes. hear very quick footsteps practically skidding to a halt in the loose, rocky singletrack trail behind us. look redstone directly in the eyes -- see that he is shitting himself exactly as i am.

without so much as a single word, i bolted in-front of redstone and took off down the hill. he followed closely, but we were half-way down the service road at waterton canyon (about 6 miles away) before we said another word to eachother. i thought we were done for that night... nothing will make you rip on your bike like the fear of death.